Good news: there is no more blood and very little sputum. It waned sometime between Saturday and today, thanks to my antibiotics (Bactrim DS).
I took a sick day from work yesterday and stayed home resting (and reading, watching netflix, playing video games and sewing) and waiting to hear back from my CF doctor about what to do—expecting her to say I need IVs. (I even packed my stuff in case I had to go to the hospital, which I’m convinced is good ju-ju if you’re hoping you’re overreacting as to the severity of your situation.)
Apparently wait-and-see is the consensus for me. I figured that coughing up a few tablespoons of blood out of the blue that slowly wanes over 2.5 days is kind of a big deal, but that’s why I consult the doctors—they have much more experience with this than me.
The important thing is that it stopped and that my antibiotics started to kick in, which in my scientific mind supports the idea that infection was the cause. This begs the question of at what point during the subtle, slight increase in mucus over a couple of months do I draw the line and say “ok, it’s time for antibiotics”?
The last time this happened was 2 years ago at the end of a 2+ year no-antibiotics streak and it kind of hit me that I needed to be more conservative and proactive at deciding how I feel and when is too much junk in my lungs. It’s hard because the change is so subtle and slow. I kind of wish it would knock me on my butt or have any kind of symptoms. The only thing the two situations have in common is allergy-related wheezing, so probably I should be on alert when I feel that way (although it happens frequently with no ill effects). It’s frustrating to not be able to predict or know when to expect bleeding and I think that’s why it scares me—it catches me so off-guard.
I added back pulmozyme last night, hypertonic saline this morning, and am now doing my vest tonight for the first time in 3 days. I kind of don’t feel like I drastically needed it as much yesterday and this morning as I felt on Sunday (Sunday was kind of junky-lungs-awful), probably because my antibiotic is doing its job and I am coughing up very little sputum (hooray).
My weekend bleeding episode has put me a little behind with Christmas preparations. I still have 3 more gifts to sew and need to clean a little because my parents and brother are coming Thursday. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow after work.
